Mark Millar, the creator of comics like Kick-Ass and Wanted, has a brand new series that comes out tomorrow. Co-created with Leinil Yu, the comic is called Supercrooks, and it centers around a group of supervillains who realize that most superheroes are based out of major American cities, so they travel to Europe to pull off a heist. So why are we talking about it on Filmonic? Because, like most of his work, Millar wants to turn it into a movie, and he’s teamed with director Nacho Vigalando to make a teaser film promoting the comic.

You may not be familiar with Vigalando, but if you’re a fan of time travel movies, his 2007 Spanish film Timecrimes is a must-see. Vigalando is already attached to direct a feature version of Supercrooks (he’s also co-writing the script with Millar), but there’s no word yet on when that might happen. In the meantime, take a look at the video below, courtesy of Heat Vision:

I love the concept of Supercrooks, and Millar has called it “X-Men meets Ocean’s Eleven,” which sounds pretty amazing to me. What do you think?

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Last month Kick-Ass co-writer Jane Goldman said someone else may take over directing duties on the sequel, with Matthew Vaughn and herself serving as producers instead of writing/directing like they did on the first film. Vaughn just signed on to direct the X-Men: First Class sequel, so he can’t direct both.

The identity of the new director is still unknown, but it shouldn’t be too long until we find out who it is as comic writer Mark Millar told The Daily Record shooting on Kick-Ass 2 will begin in the summer.

He didn’t offer anything more than that, but one would assume Aaron Johnson, Chloe Moretz, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse will be returning and Lionsgate will be involved in production and distribution. The company acquired North American rights to the first film following a strong reception at the 2009 Comic Con, and it went on to make just under $100m worldwide.

Mark Millar debuted the comic version of Kick-Ass 2 on October 20th, so fans can already find out what happens to Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl. The ideal director would probably be Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz, Scott Pilgrim), but with him busy on Ant-Man and the next Simon Pegg/Nick Frost project, Attack the Block director Joe Cornish would be an interesting choice.

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Some very nice alliteration going on there. Latino Review has an exclusive update on a film adaptation of Mark Millar’s comic book Nemesis, which finished its run a few weeks ago. Tony Scott is set to direct, and now Matthew Michael Carnahan (Lions for Lambs, State of Play) is in talks to adapt the comic for the screen. As usual, hit the break for more.

Looking at Wikipedia, Nemesis is based around the concept, “What if Batman was the Joker?” or, “What if Batman was a total cunt?” Lovely. Just so you know, this isn’t the actual Batman. I don’t think this would fit in with Nolan’s current Batverse. Although apparently Catwoman does, so who knows.

Basically here we have a Batman-esque character who is actually a crazy villain, and looking at the film of Millar’s comic Kick-Ass, this is also going to be insane. As we reported on the site last year, Millar would love to see Johnny Depp in the role of the lead character. I’d really like to see that – a villainous role for Depp would be great.

Comic book adaptations are now more rife than bad romcoms starring Jennifer Aniston, but the team of Tony Scott and Carnahan is interesting. Scott has previously directed Top Gun, Man on Fire, Déjà Vu, and many others. Carnahan has previously written The Kingdom, Lions for Lambs and State of Play. This is likely the sort of thing where we just have to wait to see how it all plays out. Will a less outright-outrageousness be worked into this? Or will Carnahan adapt his style into a manner similar to Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman’s screenplay for Kick-Ass?

Is anyone out there familiar with the Nemesis comic? I’ve read not-so-great reviews, and Latino Review’s El Mayimbe says he hopes the ending is changed for the film.

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Earlier this year it was announced Tony Scott would be directing an adaptation of Mark Millar’s comic Nemesis following the success of Millar’s his other comic-to-movie adaptations Wanted and Kick-Ass. Millar later revealed that he had Johnny Depp and Brad Pitt in mind for the lead roles (good luck with that), and now he is claiming Nemesis will be the most expensive movie ever made.

From an interview with MTV:

“They reckon the budget on this thing will probably be around $450 million mark. It’s a very expensive film, it’s got a lot of big set pieces,” he told MTV News while promoting his recently launched “CLiNT” comics magazine. “So the nice thing is, it means we can hopefully afford who we want to work with.”

Millar said he discussed who he’d like to see in the title roles with Scott recently, and told the filmmaker, “In my head I saw Johnny Depp versus Brad Pitt, and he said, ‘Well, that sounds good,’ and he has some of his own ideas as well. He’s just going to go around and get a script together and then take it out and see what he can find.”

“It’s great because a whole bunch of directors approached to direct this film and some really amazing guys came forward,” said Millar. “It was a very troubling position to be able to sort of say that some guys were right for it maybe because they weren’t good at action sequences or they were good at character stuff or maybe vice versa, somebody who’s very good at action but they couldn’t do the drama.”

I think we can all agree a $450 million budget for a movie based on a comic hardly anyone has heard of is a little…excessive. In this case I think Millar is just talking nonsense as usual. Earlier this year he told everyone 20th Century Fox had approached him to write X-Men 4, which they denied. There was also that 8 hour Superman trilogy he had planned for Warner Bros.

20th Century Fox will probably give Nemesis a budget north of $100 million, but it won’t be getting a bigger budget than Avatar like Millar is suggesting/hoping.

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Comic book writer Mark Millar is quickly gaining a reputation among internet circles as something of a harbinger of misinformation. Two of his films successfully made the transition to the big screen – Wanted and Kick-Ass – but the author has a questionable track record with many of his claims; apparently he was telling people he wrote (or would write) the newest X-Men film, a statement Fox outright denied soon after.

In any case, we’re playing right into his hands by even talking about this piece of “news” considering there’s almost no way it’ll come to pass, but it’s really fun to consider. As if the headline didn’t give it away, read on to see what Millar is hyping now.

As I recently wrote here on Filmonic, director Tony Scott (Top Gun, Unstoppable) has signed to direct Nemesis, a film based on one of Millar’s newest comics. For those of you who haven’t been following this film’s development, the concept is pretty spectacular: the world’s only supervillain is a wealthy billionaire type, but instead of fighting for good, he chooses the best police officer in the world and makes his or her life a living hell. It’s been pitched as “what if Batman WAS the Joker?”, a welcome twist to the tiring superhero genre.

Now, Millar tells Empire that he wants Johnny Depp as the villainous titular character.

When I was writing the comic, I genuinely saw Johnny Depp as Nemesis. He’s a thin-faced guy, slightly creepy, a cross between Heath Ledger and Christian Bale, and someone who could pull off both those things at the same time is Depp. He would get it. He goes slightly crazy in his roles!

Never one to aim low, Millar is also hoping to secure Brad Pitt in the role of Blake Morrow, the police detective protagonist.

He’s Commissioner Gordon meets Sherlock Holmes, so it’s got to be a big physical policeman who you feel could stand up for himself in a physical fight. It’s got to be somebody who can take a punch. You couldn’t really get anybody who’s too cerebral. He’d have to be a very physical actor so it would need to be a Pitt. Or maybe even a Liam Neeson.

Say what you will about Millar, but the man certainly has high aspirations. What do you think about the likelihood of a Depp vs. Pitt match-up on screen?

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Director Tony Scott has been tearing it up on Filmonic lately: his new trailer for Unstoppable hit a couple days ago, and he’s in talks to direct Shia LaBeouf in the upcoming adaptation of John Grisham’s The Associate. Now, there’s another interesting story rumbling through the interwebs: Bleeding Cool reports Scott is attached to direct Nemesis, a film based on the comic by Wanted and Kick-Ass creator Mark Millar.

If you haven’t heard of Nemesis, it sounds like a pretty cool take on the ever-exhausting superhero genre. This one centers on yet another billionaire costumed vigilante, but instead of the typical hero role, this guy’s the supervillain. He’s essentially the only costumed villain in the world, and because he’s at the top of his game, he travels the world picking on one police officer in major countries and making that person’s life miserable. It’s been pitched as “what if Batman WAS The Joker?”, if that makes any sense.

A writer for the screenplay hasn’t been set yet, but Scott Free (Ridley and Tony’s production company) will produce for 20th Century Fox. Millar added the following to a website called Millarworld:

Bryan Hitch and I would reference Tony on a weekly basis when we were doing The Ultimates. Our dream was an Ultimates movie with Scott directing because he can do the character work and the intensity, but also handle scale and action like practically no other. The idea of a him helming a superhero movie had us giddy and here he is directing the one Steve McNiven and I created.

In the same post, Millar mentions a bit about the budget and potential casting:

We talked casting, we talked budget (and we’re talking way more than Wanted and Kick-Ass put together here in terms of money for him to play with) and we talked with Fox about making this into a major franchise, something they’re really going to invest their time and energy into…The actor he’s shooting for as the lead character is going to blow your socks off.

What do you think about Tony Scott directing a superhero movie? Are you excited to see Nemesis come to the big screen?

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Mark Millar isn’t one to keep tight lipped about anything, so when asked what he had planned for the Kick-Ass sequel (currently titled Kick-Ass 2: Balls to the Wall) he let the details flow. The current plan is for him to finish writing the new comic by Christmas, and then production can start around April next year after director Matthew Vaughn has completed work on X-Men: First Class.

From MovieWeb:

Mark Millar: The film and the comic book are very closely tied together. There are only a few minor changes towards the end. It does led directly into a sequel, and I am writing the sequel as I always planned it to be. The actors may be a little bit older, or bigger. They can address that in the movie. But I am not changing anything for the comic book. We left things off with her being adopted by this extremely nice man. He is a cop. And she has to stop killing people, you know? That seems like an interesting starting point in the next one in regards to her character. She is going to be like Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven, where she hasn’t picked up a gun in years. It’s that type of thing. I like the idea of doing that with an eleven year old girl. She was part of this massive cacophony of violence. But she’s not allowed to kill people anymore. She is consumed with anger, and forced to watch TV shows instead. Halfway through the movie, or the comic, we will follow her as she picks up a gun again. It is going to be awesome.

And what about Red Mist?

Mark Millar: This is a guy who has had his entire family killed by Hit Girl. He heads off and develops his martial arts skills. He learns how to become a better villain. That type of thing. He is going to come back and wreck unholy vengeance on our team. But in reality, he just comes back and gets stoned, and he spends a lot of money. He can’t do anything, so he hires this bad ass girl from Russia, she comes into the story, and her plan is to kill Hit Girl. Red Mist becomes like Charles Manson. He goes on-line and influences a bunch of young villains to go against Kick-Ass and Hit Girl. The whole thing ends up as a big gang fight like you’d see in The Warriors. There is going to be a big gang fight in the middle of Times Square between all of these costumed heroes. And at the head will be the Red Mist and Hit Girl.

Kick-Ass is one of my favorite movies of 2010 (alongside Inception of course), so I am up for a sequel, but only if they keep the spirit of the first film and only if Vaughn gets 100% creative control like he had before. Lionsgate will probably be funding and distributing his time so they can at least go into the second film knowing people are looking forward to it and it will be seen.

Kick-Ass will be released on DVD/Blu-ray next week, and you can pre-order it via these links:

DVD | Blu-ray

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Update: Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Red Mist) recently tweeted saying this isn’t confirmed:

Don’t believe what you are hearing about Kick-Ass 2 guys. It is not confirmed, but I will love to do it when the time is right!

___

According to CLiNT, a new magazine from Mark Millar and Titan Magazines, Kick-Ass 2: Balls to the Wall will begin production in 2011, in preparation for a 2012 release date.

The news comes from Forces of Geek, who have the press release for the new CLiNT magazine. Apparently the publication will feature interviews and features on films, games and television, as well as serialized comic strips from UK comedians Jonathan Ross and Frankie Boyle. Also, and probably more importantly: the next series of Kick-Ass serializations. From what I’ve read, the comics don’t come close to the quality of the film…but it might still be worth checking out, if not just to see the basis of what may happen in the second film.

But that’s the news here – that Kick-Ass 2 has been given the go-ahead. There was some concern as to whether the film would generate a large enough profit to warrant a sequel – but seemingly it has. Matthew Vaughn is going to have quite a bit of comic-related stuff on his hands for the foreseeable future, what with directing X-Men: First Class as well, which is meant to be out next summer. Let’s just hope he does a good job with both (personally I’ve never been sure about the concept of First Class, but we shall see).

Kick-Ass was one of those films that I walked out of ready to see a sequel straight away, and there’s a lot riding on Mark Millar here to craft a good story that will in turn make a good film. But if he doesn’t – I guess they can always change it. I just want to see Hit Girl kick some more ass.

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A few days ago Wanted and Kick-Ass comic book writer Mark Millar posted a message on his official message board informing his followers that he had just made the toughest decision of his career by turning down an offer from 20th Century Fox to write the script for X-Men 4. Bryan Singer and producer Lauren Shuler Donner hinted at making X-Men 4 two weeks ago so the possibility didn’t seem too far-fetched, although Millar has been known to talk things up in the past (click here to read Millar’s planned 8 hour Superman trilogy, which he let the internet know about a week after Warner Bros. announced they would be rebooting).

Anyhow, some were skeptical of what Miller said. X-Men: First Class seems to be Fox’s priority at the moment, with talk of a trilogy, so it would be a bit confusing to go from prequels to distant sequels within the space of a few years. As expected, some sites did some digging to see what was actually going on.

From Bleeding Cool:

I’ve spoken by phone and e-mail to those who Mark Millar spoke to at Fox – and they claim that yes, they did speak to him. And that while they conducted a conversation at a high level concerning the X-Men characters and the X-Universe that Fox is mapping out with future films, Mark was not offered a role. Well not yet anyway. They also say that there is no X-Men 4 project being worked on right now – which is also why he was not offered the job of writing on it. And that Jamie Moss is lined up to write the next project, X-Men: First Class.

However, the Fox people told me that they really do want to work with Mark in the future. So, yes according to Fox, Mark Millar got it wrong – but Pincho Taco is wrong too. No one is working on X-Men 4 right now. And that’s from the top.

Unless of course, that isn’t true.

Millar also posted the following on his message board yesterday:

What’s nice is that we’ll announce what we’re doing in the next couple of months and Drew, the exec at Fox who invited me to write X-Men, can easily confirm.

I’m going to talk to Fox about X4 when I edit Wizard in July so we can cover that and the other stuff then too.

Who to believe? Are Fox developing an X-Men 4 alongside First Class? Is Mark Millar doing this simply for attention, or was he genuinely offered a role by Fox? I guess time will tell, although I think Millar should learn to keep some things to himself. He can’t be having meetings with Fox, turning them down in the process, and then start writing about it on the internet. I’m not sure Fox will be too happy with this either.

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Last week we got the news that Angelina Jolie had decided not reprise her role of Fox in Wanted 2, and that Universal had pulled the plug on the sequel as a result. However, according to The Hollywood Reporter Wanted 2 is still alive, and creator Mark Millar recently told STV that the film “will be certainly going ahead”.

“What I heard was that there’s filming this year for a release at the end of next year, so the plot that they had will have some modifications now. Her character will have to be written out completely. We’ll see what happens, I don’t know, it changes every day. Again, things get so out of your hands with film because 300 people are involved, whereas with comics it’s just you and your artist.”

The following quote from Millar contains Wanted spoilers…

“What was funny was originally ‘Wanted’ was just going to be one movie, and Angelina [Jolie] dies at the end,” related Millar. “The idea was that it was going to be self-contained, but the movie cost $75 million to make and it made $314 million back just theatrically. At the premiere the tracking was really good and everything, and the producer came up and said ‘What are we going to do for ‘Wanted 2?’’ and I was like ‘I don’t have any ideas!’”

“So they put something together, and it was bringing Angelina back from the dead and everything,” continued Millar. “I don’t know, I think that probably just didn’t sit easily with her, because it has to be a really good reason why somebody comes back from the dead.”

“I think it’s actually more authentic if they keep her dead,” added Millar. “She was the star of the movie really, but how cool is it to have the star dead and bring in another cool character for the next one?

Wanted 2 can still be successful without Jolie, but they’ll need to get a few more names onboard as I don’t think James McAvoy can carry the film by himself, especially overseas where the first film made most of its money. I guess they’ll now be busy rewriting the script, so we should hear some stuff on the sequel in the upcoming months if they intend to release it in 2011.

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